“The Way of Perfection” – Part 5 of 10

Let’s read St Teresa of Avila’s “The Way of Perfection”.
Translated by Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD and Otilio Rodriguez, OCD.
A Study Edition Prepared by Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD.
ICS Publications, ISBN 978-0-935216-70-7

Chapter 20

This chapter, which on the surface appears to lack focus, needs to be seen in light of previous chapters where St Teresa states that, on the one hand, not everyone is a contemplative (chapter 17), while on the other, God invites everyone to drink from the fount of life (chapter 19). Here she resolves this apparent contradiction by adding that God doesn’t exclude anyone from contemplation but also doesn’t force anyone and gives this water to everyone that follows him.

“It seems I contradicted … what I said before. When I was consoling those who were not contemplatives, I said that the Lord had different paths by which to go to Him just as there are many dwelling places … But He did not say: ‘some come by this path, and others by another.’ Rather, His mercy was so great He excluded no one from striving to come to this fount of life to drink … He does not force us; on the contrary, in many ways He gives drink to those who wish to follow Him so that no one will go without consolation or die of thirst … You must always proceed with this determination to die rather than fail to reach the end of the journey.”

Having established that no one is excluded from drinking from the fount of life, St Teresa tells us that the journey must begin with determination, even if imperfect at first. She will return to this theme several times in the remainder of the work, repeatedly reminding us of this.

“let us deal a little with how this journey must begin … I don’t say that if a person doesn’t have the determination of which I shall speak here, he should stop trying; for the Lord will continue perfecting him. And if that person should do no more than take one step, the step will contain in itself so much power that he will not have to fear losing it, nor will he fail to be very well paid.”

No sooner does St Teresa seem to be narrowing down her focus on how the journey is to begin, then she interjects the non-sequitur “Thus, daughters, in reference to all the persons who speak with you …” and turns her attention to the kind of persons and conversations her nuns should entertain. While not completely unrelated, its not at all clear why she makes this transition. Nonetheless, her insight here is wise: she advises that you should only speak with the language of God, and those who do not understand this language, nor wish to learn it, will simply not be interested. You don’t need to shun such people, they will simply go their own way because you have nothing in common.

“Let truth dwell in your hearts, as it should through meditation, and you will see clearly the kind of love we are obliged to have for our neighbor.”

“There’s no longer time, Sisters, for children’s games, for these worldly friendships, even though they may be good, seem to be nothing else … God is your business and language. Whoever wants to speak to you must learn this language; and if he doesn’t, be on your guard that you don’t learn his; it will be a hell.”

“If those who speak with you wish to learn your language, though it is not your business to teach anyone, you can tell about the riches that are gained in learning it since telling of this is beneficial to the other, and when he learns about the great gain that is to be had, he may go and seek out a master who will teach him. It would be no small favor from the Lord if you were to succeed in awakening some soul to this good.”

Chapter 21

As is typical of her style, after a digression at the end of her last chapter, St Teresa begins this chapter picking up on the theme of determination where she left off to divert into her aside. Here she exhorts her nuns to be resolute to the end, whatever diabolic obstacles may be placed as stumbling blocks a long the way. These come in the way of numerous criticisms from scoffers of mental prayer.

“They must have a great and very resolute determination to persevere until reaching the end, come what may, happen what may, whatever work is involved, whatever criticism arises, whether they arrive or whether they die on the road, or even if they don’t have courage for the trials that are met, or if the whole world collapses. You will hear some persons frequently making objections: ‘there are dangers’; ‘so-and-so went astray by such means’; ‘this other one was deceived’; ‘another who prayed a great deal fell away’; ‘it’s harmful to virtue’; ‘it’s not for women, for they will be susceptible to illusions’; ‘it’s better they stick to their sewing’; ‘they don’t need these delicacies’; ‘the Our Father and the Hail Mary are sufficient.'”

Of these criticism, St Teresa says she only agrees with one, that “the Our Father and the Hail Mary are sufficient” as prayers. But in agreeing, she is not abandoning mental prayer in favor of vocal prayer; rather, in the remainder of the text, she will use the words of the “Our Father” as a springboard to teach how one should pray properly. In this way, St Teresa silences her critics by teaching mental prayer with the very prayer that her critics themselves say is sufficient.

“It is always good to base your prayer on prayers coming from the mouth of the Lord … So it seems to me now that I should proceed by setting down some points here about the beginning, the means, and the end of prayer … I don’t say that I’m going to write a commentary on these divine prayers … But I will mention some thoughts on the words of the Our Father.”

“Hence, don’t pay any attention to the fears they raise or to the picture of the dangers they paint for you … For when you are about to gain the treasure … by a royal road and by a safe road, the road chosen by our King and all His elect and saints, they will tell you that there are so many dangers and so many things to fear.”

Here, the “royal” and “safe” road can be understood as the “Our Father”.

At this point, St Teresa issues an important warning here to her critics: unless you engage in authentic prayer, your spiritual life will dry up. Since she will argue that for any vocal prayer to be authentic it must be joined with mental prayer, by arguing against mental prayer, her critics are advocating for an inauthentic form of prayer which will end in killing the spiritual life of those who follow their advice.

“So you see, how will one journey without a drop of this water on a road where there are so many struggles? It is clear that when it is needed most they will not have it and will die of thirst. Because whether we like it or not, my daughters, we must all journey toward this fount, even though in different ways. Well, believe me; and don’t let anyone deceive you by showing you a road other than that of prayer … Should anyone tell you that prayer is dangerous, consider him the real danger and run from him … There will be danger in not having humility and the other virtues. But that the way of prayer be a way of danger — God would never will that.”

“And see how blind the world is, for they fail to consider the many thousands who have fallen into heresies and great evils because they didn’t practice prayer but engaged in distractions.”

While it is not irrelevant for us today, this chapter is actually aimed at arming her nuns against the kinds of criticisms they would have heard in their days. Her nuns would have been sensitive to these criticisms and therefore hesitant to engage in mental prayer as St Teresa taught them. The saint had to reassure them. She argues that people have gone astray regarding authentic prayer, and that’s why God raises up servants to remind us of the goodness of prayer. Her closing argument, in my opinion, is the final nail in the coffin of those who advocate against mental prayer: For vocal prayer to be prayer at all, the person praying must be attentive to what is being said. But to be attentive to what is being said is exactly what we mean by ‘mental prayer’. Surely her critics are not advocating for the mindless recitation of words in order to avoid mental prayer?!

“God will raise up someone to open the eyes of these half-blind people and tell them that the devil has placed a cloud in front of them to prevent their seeing the way … Little by little, souls discover again the way; God gives them courage. If they are told there is danger in prayer, one of these servants of God will strive, if not in words then in deeds, to make known how good prayer is.”

“Therefore, Sisters, give up these fears … If they tell you that the prayer should be vocal, ask, for the sake of more precision, if in vocal prayer the mind and heart must be attentive to what you say. If they answer “yes” — for they cannot answer otherwise — you will see how they admit that you are forced to practice mental prayer and even experience contemplation if God should give it to you by such a means.”

Chapter 22

Having argued effectively at the end of the last chapter that vocal prayer necessarily entails mental prayer, St Teresa now turns to a more substantive definition of mental prayer: As long as you are praying with the awareness that you are speaking to God, who you are in relation to Him, and what you are saying to him, then you are engaged in mental prayer. So reciting a vocal prayer, like the “Our Father”, can and should be joined with mental prayer, since you should always pray with awareness.

“… the nature of mental prayer isn’t determined by whether or not the mouth is closed. If while speaking I thoroughly understand and know that I am speaking with God and I have greater awareness of this than I do of the words I’m saying, mental and vocal prayer are joined. If, however, others tell you that you are speaking with God while you are reciting the Our Father and at the same time in fact thinking of the world, then I have nothing to say. But if you are to be speaking, as is right, with so great a Lord, it is good that you consider whom you are speaking with as well as who you are, at least if you want to be polite.”

That this seems obvious to us today is a testament to the influence St Teresa has had on the Church. But its clear from the numerous times she has to urge her nuns not to fear mental prayer that this was not the case in her days.

“Who can say that it is wrong, when we begin to recite the Hours or the rosary, to consider whom we are going to speak with, and who we are, so as to know how to speak with Him? Now I tell you, Sisters, if before you begin your vocal prayer you do the great deal that must be done in order to understand these two points well, you will be spending a good amount of time in mental prayer. Yes, indeed, for we must not approach a conversation with a prince as negligently as we do one with a farm worker, or with some poor thing like ourselves for whom any manner of address is all right.”

St Teresa has a great appreciation of God’s loving kindness in giving us prayer, that he let’s us approach him this way, even though we hardly know how to address him properly, and yet he accepts us in humility. The last thing we want to do is to be rude to him by talking to him while our minds are elsewhere!

“… this King listens to me and lets me approach Him … even though as an uneducated person I don’t know how to speak to Him … He delights more in the unpolished manners of a humble shepherd who He realizes would say more if he knew more than He does in the talk of very wise and learned men … But just because He is good doesn’t mean that we should be rude … we should strive to be aware of His purity and of who He is …”

St Teresa is overcome at this point with love for her Creator and breaks out into an extemporaneous prayer, almost as an example of how we might approach God in prayer. You can see all the elements of mental prayer in it: a clear awareness of her smallness as she speaks to God in his infinite being. I quote her prayer in its entirety:

“Oh, our Emperor, supreme Power, supreme Goodness, Wisdom itself, without beginning, without end, without any limit to Your works; they are infinite and incomprehensible, a fathomless sea of marvels, with a beauty containing all beauty, strength itself! Oh, God help me, who might possess here all human eloquence and wisdom together in order to know how to explain clearly — insofar as is possible here below, because in this case all knowledge is equivalent to knowing nothing — a number of the many things we can consider in order to have some knowledge of who this Lord and Good of ours is!”

St Teresa beautifully concludes this chapter by deepening our appreciation of what mental prayer is really all about. In “understanding whom you are speaking with” as you pray, what you are doing is entering into a relationship with God, the nature of which can only be likened to the intimacy one has with one’s spouse — here St Teresa is echoing the biblical imagery of the Bride and the Bridegroom as metaphor for mankind’s union with God.

“Yes, bring yourselves to consider and understand whom you are speaking with … it is only right, daughters, that we try to delight in these grandeurs our Spouse possesses and that we understand whom we are wedded to and what kind of life we must live … here below before getting married a person will know the other party … who this man is, who His Father is, what country He is going to bring me to, what good things He promises to give me, what His status is, how I can make Him happy, and in what ways I can please Him, and from studying how I can conform my way of life to His? Now if a woman is to be happily married, she must … strive for this conformity even though her husband is a man of lowly estate.”

“This is mental prayer, my daughters: to understand these truths. If you should want to grow in understanding these things and pray vocally, well and good. You should not be thinking of other things while speaking with God, for doing so amounts to not knowing what mental prayer is.”

Chapter 23

As if recovering from yet another digression, St Teresa begins the chapter by returning once again to the question of determination, and tries to convince us with three reasons for why it is important in order to achieve our final goal of contemplation and divine union.

“Well now, I say there are so many reasons why it is extremely important to begin with great determination that I would have to go on at much length if I mentioned them all. Sisters, I want to mention only two or three.”

Her first reason is that, if you give your time in prayer with the right intention, God will always reward you with much more in return. So there is no reason not to give of yourself with complete abandonment and there will be no displeasure in holding back.

“One is that if we resolve to give something, that is, this little care, to someone who has given so much to us and continually gives — giving this little care is certainly to our advantage and we thereby gain so many wonderful things — there is no reason for failing to give with complete determination. There’s no reason for being like the lender who gives something with the intention of getting it back again … rather, there is always some displeasure felt by the borrower when the object is taken back …”

She compares this to gifts between husband and wife where everything is held in common, and so the exchange is more of a symbol of their mutual love until death than any transfer of goods.

“What bride is there who in receiving many valuable jewels from her bridegroom will refuse to give him even a ring, not because of what it is worth, for everything belongs to him, but to give it as a pledge that she will be his until death? Does this Lord deserve less … But this little bit of time that we resolve to give Him … let us give to Him, since we desire to do so, with our thoughts free of other things and unoccupied by them … I should consider the time of prayer as not belonging to me and think that He can ask it of me in justice when I do not want to give it wholly to Him.”

“Let the intention be firm; my God is not at all touchy; He doesn’t bother about trifling things. Thus you will have something to be grateful for; this intention amounts to giving something.”

While St Teresa urges to give with complete abandonment, she realizes that some just don’t have that spirit of giving. A lot of people just bring their petitions to God and pray in the hopes of getting something in return for the “time they have put in”. While they may not be the most generous, it is something and God will reward them.

“… for anyone who is not generous but so stingy that he doesn’t have the spirit of giving, it is enough for them to lend. In the end, one who lends does do something, and this Lord of ours takes everything into account … He is not at all petty … when there is a question of His repaying us, He’s so careful that you need have no fear. Just the raising of our eyes in remembrance of Him will have its reward.”

The next reason St Teresa forwards for determination is that it keeps the devil at bay. If you are determined, it is less likely that you will be moved by temptation.

“Another reason for beginning with determination is that the devil will not then have so free a hand to tempt … And if he knows that someone is changeable and unstable in being good and not strongly determined to persevere, he will keep after him day and night;”

The final reason is that the determined person strives with great fortitude, knowing that failure is absolute, like one in battle who has made his peace with imminent death. St Teresa calls him a “desperado”, someone without any other hope except that of the way forward, like when Peter, faced with our Lord’s “hard teaching” that caused many to turn away, said “Lord, to whom shall we go?” (John 6:66) For Peter, there was no other way forward.

“The other reason for beginning with determination is — and it is very much to the point — that the person who does so struggles more courageously. He knows that come what may he will not turn back. As in the case of one who is in a battle, he knows that if he is conquered they won’t spare him his life and that if he doesn’t die in battle he will die afterward. He struggles with greater determination and wants to fight like a desperado — as they say — and he doesn’t fear the blows so much, because he is convinced of how important victory is and that for him to conquer is to live.”

In closing the chapter, St Teresa ends by assuring her nuns of final victory. Having impressed on them all the difficulties they will face and urged them to meet them with determination, St Teresa rightly worried that some might reason, is it worth it? Should I bother to embark on this difficult path? Or should I cut my losses short since I will only loose all my investment in the end? St Teresa consoles them not to worry, victory is theirs.

“It’s also necessary to begin with the assurance that if we don’t let ourselves be conquered we will obtain our goal … Don’t be afraid that the Lord will leave you to die of thirst … for the devil intimidates persons who don’t yet fully know the goodness of the Lord through experience, even though they know it through faith. But it is a great thing to have experienced the friendship and favor He shows toward those who journey on this road and how He takes care of almost all the expenses.”

St Teresa shows remarkable sympathy to those who can only take it on faith that the struggle is worth it, and have not experienced the Lord’s goodness directly as she has. But she testifies to this as a witness and asks us to trust her.

“I’m not surprised that those who have not experienced this want the assurance of some gain for themselves … I say that should anyone have some doubt little would be lost in trying the journey of prayer; for this journey brings with it the following good: more is given than is asked for, beyond what we could desire. This is absolutely true; I know. And those of you who know it by experience, through the goodness of God, can be my witnesses.

Chapter 24

Once again St Teresa begins a new chapter by returning to her discussions from chapters 19 and 21 on mental prayer as it is joined to vocal prayer. After reminding us what mental prayer entails, she expands on our understanding by noting that it is not sufficient to know what the words mean just once, but you must think about what you are saying each time you recite the prayer. After all, you are speaking to God each time you pray and so your attention must be on him.

“Now, then, let us speak again to those souls I mentioned that cannot recollect or tie their minds down in mental prayer or engage in reflection … what I now want to counsel you about … is how you must pray vocally, for it’s only right that you should understand what you’re saying … I will speak of those prayers we are obliged as Christians to recite … so that people won’t be able to say of us that we speak and don’t understand what we’re speaking about … What I would like us to do, daughters, is refuse to be satisfied with merely pronouncing the words. For when I say, ‘I believe,’ it seems to me right that I should know and understand what I believe. And when I say, ‘Our Father,’ it will be an act of love to understand who this Father of ours is and who the Master is who taught us this prayer.”

“If you reply that you already know this and that there is no reason to recall it, you are wrong … God never allows us to forget the Master who taught us this prayer, and with so much love and desire that it benefit us. He wants us to remember Him often when we say the prayer, even though because of our weakness we do not remember him always.”

St Teresa next turns the the importance of solitude in prayer, noting that Christ himself prayed in solitude. Clearly, if you are engaged in talking to God, you don’t want to be distracted by the world and need to isolate yourself from it. So in mental prayer, you should make every effort to create a situation in which there is silence both outside you and inside.

“Now with regard to vocal prayer you already know that His Majesty teaches that it be recited in solitude … one cannot speak simultaneously to God and to the world; this would amount to nothing more than reciting the prayer while listening to what is being said elsewhere or to letting the mind wander and making no effort to control it.”

Of course, anyone who has tried this quickly discovers that, depending on the circumstances, it is not always easy to quiet the mind. St Teresa consoles us in this regard, and asks us not to be too hard on ourselves when we can’t control our distractions. We should try, but sometimes it is just beyond our ability. God could quiet the mind for us, but he sometimes allows these distractions to happen for some greater good. We should just make the effort to be alone, and trust God will hear us and answer, even if we don’t hear him.

“There can be exceptions at times either because of bad humors … or because of faint feelings in the head … Or it can happen that God will permit days of severe temptation in his servants for their greater good. And though in their affliction they are striving to be quiet, they cannot even be attentive to what they are saying, no matter how hard they try; nor will the intellect settle down in anything, but by the disordered way it goes about, it will seem to be in a frenzy.”

“Whoever experiences the affliction these distractions cause will see that they are not his fault; he should not grow anxious, which makes things worse, or tire himself trying to put order into something that at the time doesn’t have any, that is, his mind. He should just pray as best he can; or even not pray, but like a sick person strive to bring some relief to his soul; let him occupy himself in other works of virtue.”

“What we ourselves can do is to strive to be alone; and please God it will suffice, as I say, that we understand to whom we are speaking and the answer the Lord makes to our petitions. Do you think He is silent? Even though we do not hear Him, He speaks well to the heart when we beseech Him from the heart.

If you have followed St Teresa’s reasoning up to this point, it should be obvious that vocal and mental prayer are just two aspects of authentic prayer. If you just want to pray vocally, that is, without mental prayer, or more precisely, without knowing what we are saying and to whom we are speaking, then you really are not praying at all. It may be hard at first, but that habit of being attentive during prayer can be formed with some effort.

“You will say … that you neither can nor want to pray any other way but vocally … Since such individuals do not have the habit, it is difficult for them to recollect their minds in the beginning; and so as to avoid a little fatigue, they say they neither can nor know how to do anything else than pray vocally.”

“You are right in saying that this vocal prayer is now in fact mental prayer. But I tell you that surely I don’t know how mental prayer can be separated from vocal prayer if the vocal prayer is to be recited well with an understanding of whom we are speaking to. It is even an obligation that we strive to pray with attention.”

Closing Remarks: It might seem like a contradiction to us that not many people are very contemplative, and yet God does not exclude anyone from contemplative prayer. St Teresa clears up the confusion by explaining that, yes, God does indeed invite all of us to drink from the “fount of life” (her metaphor for contemplative prayer), but he also doesn’t force anyone.

If we are to journey to this fount, we must begin with very resolute determination. We need to overcome thoughts that would discourage us from practicing mental prayer, like that it will lead to error. To answer any doubts we might have and address the critics of her day, St Teresa shows us how traditional vocal prayers, like the “Our Father” and the “Hail Mary”, if recited with attention and not mindlessly, are already mental prayers. As long as you are praying with the awareness that you are speaking to God, the awareness of who you are in relation to Him, and the awareness of what you are saying to him, then you are already engaged in mental prayer.

It is a testament to God’s loving kindness that he allows us to approach him this way, miserable as we are, so the least we can do is not be rude by talking to him while thinking about something else. It is important that we be attentive to God each time we pray, and not merely be content with having understood the words of the prayer just once so that now we can safely recite it mindlessly. Over time, we come to better understand who we are speaking with and enter into a relationship with God that can only be likened to the biblical marriage between the Bride and Bridegroom.

However, we shouldn’t be too hard on ourselves, because distractions in prayer are often beyond our control; nonetheless, we should strive for both exterior and interior silence. If God wants, he can give us quiet or leave us to battle our distractions, whatever is most efficacious for our good. But don’t be discouraged! The watchword is “determination”! With that you will not be afraid to give of yourself completely in prayer, fight off any diabolic temptations and battle forward like a real “desperado”, one who knows that failure is not an option!